tooth_dr

I’m using an Atik 383L+ camera on the ED80, KAF8300 sensor. I have the same sensor on my 10”, but in a QHY9. No difference apart from the QHY being cheaper and much quieter.

This is from last night. I was trying to get away from the moon, and an H-alpha target. This had just cleared the horizon, so I gave it a shot. I though the data wouldnt be any good, but I was happy to take a clear sky, and get a few more hours under my belt with the mount and kit. It has turned out pretty decent after all. I am using the 7nm Baader filter in the 250PX, and a 7nm Optolong filter in the ED80. I had been having elongated stars pre meridian - I tightened the focuser lock by hand quite hard, and this I think has cured the problem. Guiding was </= 0.6" last night, despite it being low on the horizon. I really like the resolution of the 10", but the FOV of the ED80. I stacked all together in APP. The first one is the full FOV, with the 10" data blended into the ED80 data (with the ED80 data was scaled up to the 10" data), and the second one is cropped to 10" reference frame. 31 x 600s in each scope, total of 62 x 600s = 10 hours 20 minutes. Thanks for looking Adam.

Thanks a good idea about spraying paint. I made one out of a cornflakes box, lasted years, until it was replaced with a laser cut one.

Very detailed image. The 6D seems to excellent despite your concerns. It is a little pink as Mark as pointed out.

Thanks Vlad. The image blows my mind, so many galaxies.

I thought I was on a roll, with a couple of reasonable LRGB images under my belt. Sadly it has all gone a bit off track. If anyone has time would they mind having a look at the stacks - I've aligned them and cropped to the reference frame, so the files are smaller now. The total integration time is 8 hours. St-avg-4500.0s-LNMWC_1_3.0_none-x_1.0_LZ3-NS-ref-qua-add-sc_BWMV_nor-AAD-RE-MBB7-Blue_1stLNC_it2.fits St-avg-5100.0s-LNMWC_1_3.0_none-x_1.0_LZ3-NS-ref-qua-add-sc_BWMV_nor-AAD-RE-MBB7-Green_1stLNC_it3.fits St-avg-5100.0s-LNMWC_1_3.0_none-x_1.0_LZ3-NS-ref-qua-add-sc_BWMV_nor-AAD-RE-MBB7-Red_1stLNC_it3.fits St-avg-14100.0s-LNMWC_1_3.0_none-x_1.0_LZ3-NS-ref-qua-add-sc_BWMV_nor-AAD-RE-MBB7-Luminance_1stLNC_it3.fits

You are one of the best Richard! I was chatting to Xiga the other day (socially distanced - I lent him my QHY9 mono), and we were both saying that we have never seen you produce a bad image. This is no exception. I guess little bit more exposure probably would have helped, but this is still incredible. Another poster print.

Epic.

A small plastic storage unit used for garden furniture and toys etc?https://www.homebase.co.uk/keter-store-it-out-midi-outdoor-plastic-garden-storage-shed-beige-brown_p517869

Thanks everyone. Just a quick opportunity this morning, clouded over within 10mins of getting them. In work now. Hopefully it clears for others get a look.

Another one:

Image taken at 8am. I was out packing up from last nights M57 imaging, so flicked on GONG and seeing there was a big prom, had a quick imaging session before heading to work. There are three decent enough proms in total around the edge of the disk.

Lovely image, really smooth texture to the surface.

That is a word I’ve never heard before. Google to the rescue 😂 Losing packets sounds like a euphemism for spending in AP. Should get that looked at 🤪

I’m not sure what that means! They download ok here. No worries 👍🏼

Thank you Ollie. I think it’s a reflection as it is in other images in a different place. I plan to blacken a few edges when I get a chance. I knew it could be fixed but I don’t know how. I tried to use the healing tool but that made it more obvious. Do you have time to explain?

Thanks Adrian. The bigger scope really does improve the resolution of the image. There is even some detail in the small spiral galaxy bottom left.

Hi I have made some changes to my workflow for RGB, thanks to @xiga, and although this is just the first step in improving my processing, I am happy now to tackle at least the RGB bit. I would like to develop a workflow for luminance- ie when to make stars smaller, NR, sharpening, etc. I've managed to produce this image of the Needle Galaxy using data from a 10" newtonian (blue tube 250px) and an ED80 on a dual rig, with KAF-8300 sensors. I scaled the colour data up to the luminance in APP. Imaged on 16th and 21st April 2020. Luminance 10" = 3.75 hours Red ED80 = 2.5 hours Green ED80 = 1.5 hours Blue ED80 = 1.33 hours Total integration time = just over 9 hours. Thanks for looking Adam

That's odd, sorry about that, TIFFs attached below. St-avg-9000.0s-Red-NoSt-SGL.tiff St-avg-5400.0s-Green-NoSt-SGL.tiff St-avg-4800.0s-Blue-NoSt-SGL.tiff St-avg-13500.0s-Luminance-NoSt-SGL.tiff

I don’t have a method, quite often I do a DPP stretch in APP and then just fudge around with reducing star size and sharpening with some NR. Do you use AA action for star reduction?

That’s awesome! Quick question - the focuser seems quite far racked out and the eyepiece quite a distance from the tube. Is this fixed and determined by the mirrors?

On my SWs the dual speed is not any different to the single speed. Apart from 10:1 shaft obviously. So it’s weight capacity is exactly the same. I had a moonlight on one of SW newts (300PDS) and I have one on my Epsilon. There are smooth and nice to use. I have a decent amount of kit on my current bog standard SW single speed focusers (2 focusers both with Baader clicklock/EFW/CCD/FF) and they are work (just). Im sure that upgrade by Baader would be good. What scope have you bought?

This isn’t how I would have done it. I am reducing the L to about 20%, applying a 0.8 Gaussian blur, then merging onto the RGB layer and slightly increasing the saturation using match colour function (intensity slider). I repeat a few times and don’t blur the last addition of luminance. But I don’t think I’ve got it right

Vantablack 😂

Exactly, I’m trying to establish a basic workflow for luminance only in APP and then PS. Then how to combine the separate L and RGB data (which are registered to each other)